Iowa’s law on privacy may has a sound loophole

Iowa’s keeping up with the times in the protection of privacy. Assistant attorney general Doug Marek says the state updated its wiretap law in 1999 to include faxes and e-mail so there are criminal safeguards for privacy. You can record a conversation if you’re taking part in it, Marek explains, but can’t tap someone else’s talk unless one party gives consent. But as for those mini-video cameras, they may be a loophole in the law.Even the new wiretap law talks about “communication” but if there’s no talk on the tape, it isn’t covered. Marek says picture-only tape may be an area Iowa law has to deal with in the future, and it’s at the heart of a current case where a landlord’s accused of spying on tenants